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September 15, 2015

Data virtualization's use of defined semantic models to represent a converged view of original sources addresses both of the issues with accessing data in a data lake. Federating access to data in a data lake eliminates the need for users to rewrite their applications to include code to read the data from the data lake, reducing the need for data replication. Existing applications can target the semantic model, making the source of the data transparent to the consuming application. At the same time, data virtualization hides the complexity of schema-on-read by allowing each user to apply specific data normalization and transformation rules to the data to produce the "renderings" that are suited for each application use.

To put it another way: cyberwarfare models are maturing in the same way that other technologies mature. To take a more prosaic example, the evolution of cyberwarfare is a lot like the cycle e-commerce went through. There was a lot of initial excitement and investment from retailers in building separate e-commerce operations or businesses, but gradually these became not just a standard part of their operation but for many retailers the core of their business, just as cyberwarfare planning and strategy is gradually becoming a part of mainstream military planning. However that doesn't mean that all countries are taking the same approach to strategy or that they even agree on what should be included in the term cyberwarfare.

Knowing the exact location of the most important Internet cables should help efforts to understand the possible effects of natural disasters or intentional attacks on the Internet, for example. Barford says he is also talking with researchers and people at telecommunications companies about the idea of adding extra fiber links that would be shared by different companies. They’d be located at key points where new fiber between major population centers could significantly improve the resilience and efficiency of the Internet. Although the Internet is publicly accessible, it is woven together from many privately owned networks that interoperate. Telecommunications companies sometimes show schematics of their core networks, but without much geographic detail.

The obvious fear for many employees is that data collected would not be anonymous and, instead, could be used for hiring, firing and promotion considerations. The growing market for these types of tools is sure to spawn imitators who might not uphold the same privacy safeguards. Privacy advocates shuddered when a software developer recently boasted that it would be possible for employers to peek into the emails and messages sent through Microsoft's Lync messaging system. "You can become your own mini-NSA," David Tucker, CEO of Australian-based Event Zero, told Network World. Managers could see which employees are dating and which ones are seeking out their next job. "Just make sure it doesn't end up on WikiLeaks," he advised.

“Over a longer period, it’s easier to miss a few edges. The financial impact is also much greater as you need a lot of management to keep everything on track in a six- to nine-month project,” says van Zoelen. “The amount of code we throw away is limited so we save money. I would almost say everything we do now is focused on delivering the most value possible.” For this reason, and since throwing its weight behind agile in 2011, the company claims to have made savings in the region of €47m as project lead times have fallen from 54 business days to 20. Over this same period of time, the number of teams involved has also grown from seven to 120. Within the teams are high levels of engagement and – because everyone is clear about what they should be doing – the working environment is largely positive, says van Zoelen.

Is it ok to torture or murder a robot? We form such strong emotional bonds with machines that people can’t be cruel to them even though they know they are not alive. So should robots have rights? Mistreating certain kinds of robots could soon become unacceptable in the eyes of society. In what circumstance would it be OK to torture or murder a robot? And what would it take to make you think twice before being cruel to a machine? ... There is a new emerging technology called quantitative legal prediction. It turns out that experienced lawyers often add a lot of value by making predictions. Using big data, complex analytics, robots will be best at “predicting” if you’re going to win a case, or that the case will be overturned on appeal, for example.

“If you look at other C-suite roles – CEO, CFO, CMO – these have been established for decades, creating defined paths to success. The CISO has been around for roughly 10 to 15 years, but it didn’t come to prominence until the last few years, and then as a technical role.” And technical skills, he added, while key to the “functional” success of a CISO, “do not lend themselves well to the business acumen and communication skills needed to work with your typical C-suite today. The main shift needed is towards thinking in terms of risk, not technology, and how this risk relates to various aspects of the business.” Christiansen agrees, to the point that he said the job is getting a different title. “The role of the CISO is evolving to the chief information risk officer (CIRO),” he said.

The practice on manufacturing floors was to leave choices about networking topology and machine-to-machine (M2M) interconnections to vendors, but as this dialogue moves into internal ERP and other higher-level office systems that support analytics and dashboards, corporate IT will be involved. There are two flavors of Internet of Things (IoT) communications in manufacturing environments: an IP-based network that is hard-wired and that interconnects machines on the floor with the ability to move information to the internet; and a more localized communications scheme where devices in immediate proximity to each other communicate through wireless technology like Bluetooth or over wired Ethernet.

On the top is the lofty goal of “satisfying customers by satisfying their constant changing requirements”. We achieve this goal by “delivering working software frequently”. To deliver working software, though, requires significant technical and managerial support. Ensuring that changing requirements do not break the system and slow down development is foremost a technical issue: how to design the system in a way that is flexible and how to create automation that ensures changes do not break things. To foster advanced technical skills in teams, teams have to be motivated to learn from their mistakes and to develop themselves.

Shadow IT risks are heightened when combined with hybrid cloud. Most companies have data security and compliance practices to protect not only their own information, but that of their customers and suppliers. These practices and policies assume that data is contained within a controlled environment. But if users create a hybrid cloud workflow that connects shadow IT software as a service (SaaS) applications to highly structured applications, they can violate security and governance requirements – a risk known as bandit hybridization. The dangers of bandit hybridization are growing for two reasons. First, SaaS adoption is increasing, and line departments can easily adopt SaaS applications without IT support.

Quote for the day:"Nothing so conclusively proves a man's ability to lead others as what he does from day to day to lead himself." -- Thomas J. Watson